"Why is there a watermelon there?"
"I'll tell you later."
Posted on 09/01/2010 2:59:47 PM PDT by Borges
In 1995, Jason Schayot set the world record for spitting a watermelon seed when he shot his tiny black bullet a whopping 75 feet, 2 inches, almost a quarter of a football field. It's a record that would be hard to beat. But Schayot might not have much competition anyway. Within a generation, most Americans won't even know that watermelons have seeds, let alone how to spit them.
According to the National Watermelon Promotion Board, only 16 percent of watermelons sold in grocery stores have seeds, down from 42 percent in 2003. In California and the mid-South, home to the country's biggest watermelon farms, the latest figures are 8 and 13 percent, respectively. The numbers seem destined to tumble. Recently developed hybrids do not need seeded melons for pollination - more on that later - which liberates farmers from growing melons with spit-worthy seeds.
The iconic, black-studded watermelon wedge appears destined to become a slice of vanished Americana. If that sounds alarmist, try to remember the last time you had to spit out a grape seed.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
So technically, if this continues the watermelon is headed for extinction.
...Yeah...and it requires you to purchase fresh seeds every year...
Sadly I think the new varieties lack the taste of older varieties. I really miss the old Black Diamond melons.
Watermelons with seed taste so much better but are getting very hard to find.
The guy at the local farmers market has them once in a while so I have only gotten one this year.
What a shame.
Monsanto.
I’ve yet to see a seedless watermelon, just watermelons with stunted seeds that don’t mature.
In the words of the immortal Curly Howard: “If at first you don’t succeed, keep on sucking ‘til you do suck seed!”
For me, nothing said “summer” as a kid like a big honkin’ slab of watermelon. Well, except maybe fresh-picked corn on the cob (we grew our own) with butter.
Either way, you had summery goodness dribbling down your chin with every bite.
No more alarmism please! Seeded watermelons will be headed for the farmer’s market and become high priced delicacies, like legacy tomatoes and potatoes. The bottom line is that we will get what we want if we are willing to pay for it.
Best thing to do is grow your own if you have the space. Down this way in Centeral Mississippi all you have to do is drive down a Hwy this time of year and there will be some guy with a P/U truck load along side the road selling watermelons.
Thanks for a bit of uncommon sense.
They never did say why it was there.
Yes, I’ve seen them at the store.
I’ve been eating those seedless watermelons for years. In July I went to Mississippi for a family reunion and we had a watermelon with seeds. The taste was so much better than anything I’ve eaten since I was a kid. It seems to me that along with getting rid of the seeds in watermelons they might be getting rid of the taste too.
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